Daybreak: Nahum 1:1 through 2:13

Name 1-1 through 2-13.

Devotional focus verse.

The Lord is slow to anger and great in power and will not at all acquit the wicked.

The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

Name 1-3.

I grew up in the country and although most of our animals were raised for food,

that occasionally led us adopt one of them as a pet.

For a while we had a goat that was a particular favorite with my brothers in me.

Barney followed us everywhere.

He loved potato chips and would come running any time he heard the rustling of a bag.

Most of the time we were happy to share.

Unfortunately, Barney also liked fruit trees.

He had a destructive habit of standing on his hind legs in a place where he could reach the branches

and eating the new shoots and leaves.

My dad figured out what was going on.

He let us know that it was our responsibility to keep our goat out of the trees.

That meant we had to pay close attention to the fences surrounding the orchard,

making sure they were in good repairs or Barney could not get to those collectible branches.

We knew Dad was serious about this instruction and we knew what needed to be done.

However, we did not take our responsibility seriously.

We really did not give the fences the intention they needed to make them secure.

Consequently, Barney found ways to keep getting back to those fruit trees.

When I looked back, I realized that Dad really was very patient with us.

However, after we repeatedly neglected his warnings and failed to fix the fences,

Dad finally took action.

He was definitely slow to anger, but the day came when we no longer had our pet.

Being kids we pouted, but deep down we knew we were responsible for losing our pet.

Dad had given us plenty of chances and we suffered the consequences for our inaction.

Our focus verse brings out that God was slow to anger in response to the sins of the people of Nineveh.

But the consequences of their failure to heed the warnings of the prophets was sure to come.

God is patient and merciful.

He gave the wicked people of Nineveh plenty of opportunities to repent and turn from their evil ways.

With the kind of detailed prophecy that Nam gave them, they were certainly alerted to impending judgment.

They could not blame anyone but themselves when the prophetic destruction did in fact occur.

They had been warned.

This scriptural warning is not, however, exclusively for Nineveh.

There is a lesson here that all of us need to heed.

The Lord is slow to anger. He gives many undeserved opportunities for repentance.

But he also cannot tolerate sin and ultimately will punish the unrepentant.

Having heard the message of salvation, we must act upon it and do what God tells us to do.

As we read these chapters, let us ponder God's wrath as he avenges sin and brings about justice.

And let us determine to live within his rules, commands and guidelines for life.

Background information.

Nam was the prophet of Nineveh's doom.

Under Jonas' reluctant preaching approximately 100 years earlier, the Ninevites had repented and God had withheld his wrath.

However, they returned to their evil ways and by the time of the prophet Nam, Nineveh was again a place of unparalleled wickedness.

As the most powerful nation on earth, a Syria with this capital city of Nineveh was a perpetrator of terrible atrocities against the cities and peoples it conquered.

At God's direction, Nam pronounced judgment on this sinful nation.

Chapter 1 opens with the prophet's declaration regarding God, establishing that the Lord is good, but also faithful in the administration of justice.

Beginning at verse 8, the prophet delivered God's message concerning the coming annihilation of the Assyrian empire and the capital city of Nineveh.

The point is made that this would be a religious conflict and that Jehovah would triumph over the wild gods of the heathen nation.

In the final four verses of the chapter, the consolation is given that God would rescue Judah and her conquerors would be destroyed, never to rise.

In chapter 2, Nam foretold the specific events that would occur in 612 BC when the Babylonian and Median armies overran the supposedly impregnable Nineveh.

How the city would be taken, the scattering of its inhabitants and the plundering of its resources were spelled out by the prophet in amazing and graphic detail.

Conclusion.

Although God is slow to anger, He will not acquit the wicked.

As evidenced by Nam's description of the destruction of Assyria, when judgment does take place, the unrighteous will have no excuse.